Kin Khao takes a Thai cook back home

Published 7:02 pm, Wednesday, September 11, 2013

For food blog pioneer and author Pim Techamuanvivit, the next step in her career will be a personal one.

"I'm kind of going home, culinarily," she says.

Techamuanvivit is plunging into the restaurant world and will take over Smooth Thai, at Mason and Ellis streets on the ground floor of the Parc 55 Hotel (55 Cyril Magnin St.). Her partner will be Smooth Thai owner Chupot Janlaor.

Raised in Bangkok, Techamuanvivit moved to America for school. The way she puts it, the only way she could eat her familiar Thai food here was to learn to cook it herself.

Now she'll have the opportunity to showcase her cooking skills on a public platform, although not entirely on her own. Running the kitchen alongside her will be chef Michael Gaines, who has cooked at Manresa and Central Kitchen. Cocktails will be done by the Bon Vivants of Trick Dog.

The restaurant will be named Kin Khao, a phrase that means "Let's eat." Well, almost.

Kin Khao will forsake many of the conventions that have become commonplace in Bay Area Thai restaurants.

"It's going to be a small menu, not one of those Thai restaurants with 300 items on the menu that is the size of a phone book," she says. "The focus is going to be really careful cooking, delicious things that I grew up eating, done with good fresh and local ingredients."

Everything from curry to chile jams will be made from scratch, if possible. Lunch, dinner and late-night eats will be offered.

Opening for the 70-seat restaurant is tentatively set for November, after a quick remodel.

Kin Khao is also her way to preserve the family culture as older relatives pass away. "I'm another piece in this chain, and if I don't do it, it's gone."

Sitting on the Dock: Techamuanvivit isn't the only one going home. James Syhaboutgrew up in West Oakland, and the chef behind Commis, Hawker Fare - and later this year, Box & Bells - is headed back to that neighborhood for to open a restaurant and beer garden at Linden Street Brewery (95 Linden St.).

In collaboration with Linden Street Brewery's Adam Lamoreaux, the new project - dubbed The Dock, a reference to its former use as a loading dock.

Syhabout will design the menu around Lamoreaux's beers, pulling from beer-friendly food cultures around the world.

Meanwhile, Commis (3859 Piedmont Ave.) - the only Oakland restaurant to hold a Michelin star - has a new chef de cuisine in Quince vet Aaron Martinez.

More Thai: Lers Ros is one of those aforementioned Thai restaurants with hundreds of items, though chef-owner Tom Silargornhas distinguished himself with his fiery cooking and lesser-known dishes.

Riding the success of his two San Francisco locations, he's working on a third - if all goes to plan, in the Mission District space of Malai Thai (3189 16th St.).

Re-upping: Some of Oakland's top restaurants have new faces in the kitchen.

Kim Alterhas moved from one Daniel Patterson restaurant to another, sliding from Jack London Square's Haven to its Uptown sister, Plum (2214 Broadway).

Alter will put her twists on the menu, including a new five-course tasting menu ($65); Plum is closed this week for sprucing up, reopening on Monday.

Replacing Alter at Haven will be Chris Johnson, who comes from Patterson's four-star San Francisco restaurant, Coi.

One final fortune cookie: A heartfelt farewell to Chili Bill Eichinger, a local bar legend and true all-around San Francisco character, who died last week.

Chili Bill spent the last 24 years tending bar at Finnegans Wake in Cole Valley. With dry humor, a heart of gold and more than a little bit of surliness, he poured drinks until leaving in June.

He drove out to San Francisco during the Summer of Love, and never left. In more recent years, he embarked on a quest to try every Chinese restaurant in San Francisco (go to: http://bit.ly/18NX2Bb). It was a pursuit of knowledge as well as deliciousness, and one he never quite finished.

Even his goodbye was fitting: Chili Bill died in hospice care, a chile pepper bouquet by his bed.

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